Colors and Mittens

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Color Large Group

Ms. Carrie has been doing some color song activities with the students and they love it. Due to the amount of language she needs to color, she isn't as able to go in to color recognition and songs as we would like so to help support her large group we're doing this one as well. Each student has a color the get to hold. We sing the following song to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It:

If you are holding (Red) stand up tall.

If you are holding (Red) stand up tall.

If you are holding (Red), it's the color in your hand.

If you are holding (Red) stand up tall.

We'll go through each of the colors, singing the song as a class. Then students get to switch colors with their peers and we sing the song again.

Mitten Large Group

Remember the Mitten Large Group? We did it with our Monday/Wednesday class and they had a lot of fun. We wanted to make sure our Tuesday/Thursday class got to join in the fun and learning as well. Click here for info on this large group.

We All Go Traveling By & Snowmen

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We All Go Traveling By Large Group

We have a song from the book We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts. Each mode of transportation has it's name, color and another descriptive word. We have a visual aid board to go with it. The students take turns helping to add the different items and remember what each phrase for each item is.

Snowman, Snowman, What Do you See Large Group

We did this last year and being a great one for the students, did it again this year. You can click here to get a copy of the book along with a description of the activity.

Polar Express & Winter Pajama Fun

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Our Class Winter Party:

As you probably have gathered from our other class parties, we like to keep the routine as familiar as possible for our students so they can enjoy the festivities without too much craziness. Here are our plans for our class Winter Parties which will be during the AM and PM sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. The only exception is that we will have a short film instead of small group on Thursday afternoon since our assistants will be tied up in a required (but don't worry, still festive) 'meeting'. The short film will probably be a Caldecott winner book put to a movie. Ms. Jeana has a DVD of quite a few so we might have the students help pick which one. All of our parties will be as follows:
Pajama Days! Send you child in the PJ's if they want to!
Small Group: Snow activities (see above lesson plans)
Snack: Cookies and 'hot' cocoa (with marshmallows)
Large Group: Christmas Caroling at the front office. We will be singing Jingle Bells and Must Be Santa with musical instruments.

For the Polar Express Large Group, click here for pictures and a synopsis.

For Must Be Santa Large Group, we will be practicing our Christmas Caroling songs with musical instruments and visual aides including focusing on the "wh" word, "who?".

The Mitten and Polar Express

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Due to unplanned scheduling conflicts, last Monday's AM and PM class missed the Mitten Large Group and they still want to do it so it's back on the lesson plans for this coming week.

Mitten Large Group

For our Mitten large group activity we will tell the story of the mitten with pictures from the book. The students will then be given a mask of one of the animals in the story. We found these on Jan Brett's website:  http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_masks_main.htm. We will hold out a blanket over our large mitten shape taped on the floor and sing to the tune of The Farmer and the Dell:

The mitten in the snow

The mitten in the snow

Help us please. . . so we don't freeze

The mitten in the snow

Carter squeezes in

Carter squeezes in

Help us please. . . so we don't freeze

The mitten in the snow

Once everyone in the whole class is under the sheet we will all sneeze "Ah, Ah, Ah, Chooo!!!!!" And everyone will rush out of the "mitten" and back to their seat.

Polar Express Large Group

"All aboard!" Students get to take their tickets and go on an obstacle course to the North Pole. Under the table, around the mountain, through the tunnel, over the bridge, on the tracks and stopping at the north pole. For more details, here is a link to the last time we did it with just a 'train theme' (click here)

The Mitten & Jingling Many Ways

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The Mitten

For our Mitten large group activity we will tell the story of the mitten with pictures from the book. The students will then be given a mask of one of the animals in the story. We found these on Jan Brett's website:  http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_masks_main.htm. We will hold out a blanket over our large mitten shape taped on the floor and sing to the tune of The Farmer and the Dell:

The mitten in the snow

The mitten in the snow

Help us please. . . so we don't freeze

The mitten in the snow

Carter squeezes in

Carter squeezes in

Help us please. . . so we don't freeze

The mitten in the snow

Once everyone in the whole class is under the sheet we will all sneeze "Ah, Ah, Ah, Chooo!!!!!" And everyone will rush out of the "mitten" and back to their seat.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingling Many Ways

Every student gets their own Jingle Bells, we then sing the song Jingle Bells, but with a twist:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way

Oh what fun it is to shake my Jingle Bells today, Hey!

Shake them high, shake them low, shake them fast and shake them slow

Oh what fun it is to shake my Jingle Bells, Ho Ho.

Each student gets to choose a different verb, we'll give ideas like, tap, twirl, bounce, twist etc. 

From: http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/2012/09/dont-eat-pete.html

Week of Thanksgiving

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Three Pigs and Jack

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The Three Little Pigs Large Group:

"I will huff and I will puff and I will blow your house down!" We will tell the story of the 3 Little Pigs with visual aides including sequencing cards, straw, sticks and a brick. The students will follow along as they do the actions and say the words.

Jack Be Nimble Large Group:

Jack be nimble, 

Jack be quick, 

Jack jumped over the candle stick. 

The students each get to take a turn deciding how they want to jump based on a choice of prepositions. For example, over, under, behind and in front over. While they do it, the rest of us will pat our knees and chant the rhyme as they do it.

Levels and Heights Small Group:

Just as an FYI, we have made our levels out of science tubes with water, food coloring and just enough space left for an air bubble.

From: http://peoniesandpoppyseeds.com/